It’s high time Sydney balanced its high rise obsession

Sydney is the only Australian capital city failing to build more detached houses than apartments, a new study has shown.

As new home-building figures plummet to their lowest levels since the late 1950s, economists warn that apartments and townhouses will dominate housing in Sydney as we build fewer and fewer freestanding homes.

Melbourne, on the other hand, built 19,100 houses last year, more than three times the detached houses built in Sydney during the same period, according to BIS Shrapnel figures. Brisbane built 11,700 houses.

Sydney is the only city in Australia that builds more apartments than houses – in every other city houses dominate new dwellings

Housing Industry Association report that Sydney’s shift to apartment development has happened as more people prefer to live in the inner city. The other factor was Bob Carr, who said Sydney was effectively shut for business in the 1990s and created a compulsory push towards high density.

Another issue inextricably linked to this issue is Sydney’s infrastructure. As Marquette Turner frequently state, until Sydney corrects its poor infrastructure trend, home ownership – in this case detached dwellings – will become increasingly out of people’s reach.